The seminal five-dimension service-quality instrument comparing customer expectations with perceived performance.
MarketingMarketing & Consumer BehaviorFree for research
At a glance
Construct measured
Perceived service quality (expectations vs. perceptions)
Developed by
Parasuraman, Zeithaml & Berry (1988)
Original publication
Parasuraman, A., Zeithaml, V. A., & Berry, L. L. (1988). SERVQUAL: A multiple-item scale for measuring consumer perceptions of service quality. Journal of Retailing, 64(1), 12–40.
Number of items
22 items administered twice (expectations battery and perceptions battery), scored as gaps
Response format
7-point agreement scale (1 = Strongly disagree to 7 = Strongly agree) for each battery; quality is scored as perception minus expectation gaps
Dimension alphas are commonly reported around .72–.86 for gap scores; perception-only scores are usually higher.
Validity evidence
The founding instrument of service-quality research, refined across multiple sectors (banking, credit cards, repair, telephone). The five-dimension structure replicates unevenly across industries, and gap-score measurement has known psychometric problems — the main motivation for the performance-only SERVPERF. Researchers typically re-verify dimensionality in their setting.
Populations & contexts
Customers of banks, retailers, telecoms, hospitals, universities, e-services and more, worldwide.
Origin, translations & adaptations
United States. Translated and adapted into scores of languages and industry-specific variants.
Licensing & permission
Free for academic research (cite the source) The items are printed in the published article and are routinely adapted in academic research with citation. Commercial consulting use should be cleared with the authors/publisher.
How to cite (APA 7)
Parasuraman, A., Zeithaml, V. A., & Berry, L. L. (1988). SERVQUAL: A multiple-item scale for measuring consumer perceptions of service quality. Journal of Retailing, 64(1), 12–40.